Hosting a virtual event people actually want to attend

Thank heaven it was a private event, and that Zoom bombers were not yet a thing… Happily the Minister managed fine, the audio and video worked and my only quiet heart attack occurred when the mobile phone number of the President of the Law Society flashed up on screen all the time he spoke, as he was dialling in. There were a few hiccups, of course one speaker seemed to be accidentally sharing his screen (his Outlook calendar) for the first 20 seconds of his speech, and another failed to “share screen” when he wanted to despite managing perfectly in rehearsal. We chose to have attendees’ cameras on, but their microphones muted, and as the tech mastermind, I deployed the “spotlight video” function when each of my five speakers began to present. This was many people’s first or second experience of Zoom (you can imagine the technical dramas) but we coped well with around 200 online at the same time. But with the Lord Chancellor, Robert Buckland, booked to speak, we didn’t want to miss the opportunity of connecting the litigation community, so on Thursday 26th March, barely three days into official lockdown, we held a short Zoom event. Stakeholder groups on the invitation list included law firms, barristers chambers, commercial court judges, the general counsels of FTSE100 companies (GC100), leading arbitrators, and legal press.īy the middle of March, with suppliers lined up and tickets sold, the moment came to announce we would postpone. One of the main hooks was a reception in the Great Hall of the Royal Courts of Justice, to which only sponsoring service providers would be invited, enabling them to get to know some of their most important clients face to face.

Volunteer-run, by some of the most senior volunteers I have come across, it was keen to raise funds for the National Pro Bono Centre, via sponsorship of its online Directory of Service Providers. The Commercial Litigators’ Forum is an organisation I began supporting in January 2020. In my experience that has translated into a desire for temporary project support - contracting me for a time on a flexible basis, for example, instead of hiring a full-time employee or agency worker. Lots of charities are facing a difficult time and are hard-pressed financially. With a background in special events and charity fundraisin g, I began a freelance career in the middle of lockdown, focused on helping charities and organisations that I know well. That’s the feedback, and from lawyers, no less! You might wonder what I did that prompted such firm praise, so here I will share my tips and advice for other event organisers. “The best virtual networking set up seen this year.”

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